David Milch Re-Ups With HBO, Will Develop Projects Based On William Faulkner Titles

David Milch is extending his relationship with HBO. Milch, whose latest series for the pay cable network, Luck, launches in January, has inked a new multi-year deal with HBO where he has been based for the past eight years. Under the new extension, in addition to executive producing Luck with Michael Mann, Milch will develop series and movies based on books by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner William Falkner. Milch’s Redboard Prods has inked a deal with the literary estate of the iconic American writer who penned novels, short stories, a play and screenplays as well as poetry and essays. The pact covers all of the 19 novels and 125 short stories in the estate, as well as other works, with the exception of those currently optioned by other parties. Milch will partner with Lee Caplin, the executor of the William Faulkner Literary Estate and CEO of Picture Entertainment Corp, to choose which works to develop, package and produce. Milch and Caplin will be executive producers of those projects, with Milch serving as the executive writer in charge of the adaptions. His daughter Olivia Milch will serve as coordinating producer. The agreement, brokered by ICM, which reps Milch, gives HBO an exclusive first crack at financing, producing and distributing the projects as movies, miniseries and series. “We are especially pleased to continue our longstanding relationship with one of the industry’s most talented contemporary writers,” HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo said. “We know that whatever David brings to the HBO table will be exciting and innovative.”

Over the past eight years, NYPD Blue co-creator Milch has created or co-created four pilots for HBO and three series: Deadwood, John From Cincinnati and the upcoming Dustin Hoffman starrer Luck, set in the world of horse racing. “I’m delighted to expand my longstanding relationship with HBO to encompass the adaptation of some of the most important literary works by any American writer into television films and series,” Milch said. “As we embark on this ambitious project, our first commitment is to serve the material, and we look forward to identifying and collaborating with the best screenwriters and filmmakers to help each of the pieces find its ideal form onscreen.” Outside of his HBO deal, Milch recently re-teamed with fellow NYPD Blue co-creator Steven Bochco for an Imagine TV-produced legal drama that landed at NBC with penalty.

34 Comments

Grrreat. Milch and Faulkner. This sounds like something totally accessible to the average American household.

Jimmy • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Hhhmm, when HBO does stuff like this it strikes me more as a way to get Emmy attention rather a large number of viewers.

Brett N • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Exactly. HBO, please stop trying to do anything interesting or remotely smart and just give us more TWO & A HALF MEN and KING OF QUEENS.

Melody Be • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I’m thrilled about it! It’s a fantastic idea!

nominee • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Don’t be foolishly glib. There’s a world of material between Chuck Lorre and Faulkner.

shadallion • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

“Grrreat. Milch and Faulkner. This sounds like something totally accessible to the average American household.”

This.

Not sure exactly which of Faulkner’s rambling, stream-of-consciousness, sons of the soil-loving stories Milch thinks would make for good television.

Mike • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I can– “The Bear”. Best hunting story ever written.

Jerkstore Jimmy • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Yes to The Bear.

Sant • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I’d love a faithful adaptation of “Sanctuary” or “The Sound and the Fury.” Faulkner isn’t rambling, his words are music if you know how to say them. Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. did some pretty damn good adaptations, and Milch ain’t too shabby either.

Matt • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

This is genius! Seriously. Nobody writes better operatic dialogue than Milch, and nobody wrote more big-canvas operatic novels than Faulkner. I can’t wait.

fan of both • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Anyone who saw DEADWOOD can see how the rambling dialects Milch’s dialogue would fit perfectly with the storytelling of Faulkner. Looking forward to what comes of this!

Lytton Strachey • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I love the moment when an estate lawyer realizes they can be a Producer.

But you know he’s not a real producer or a very good lawyer because he just tied up ALL his properties with one studio/network and producing partner.

Sucker.

Melody Be • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

You’re an idiot. Mr. Caplin cares about the legacy of William Faulkner more than anything else. Going through HBO is a brillant move. It will excel in the ratings and at the awards circuit.

ONEandDONE • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Deadwood should have gotten a proper final episode. The one they got was bleak, it was fitting, but it wasn’t a true finale.

I love Boardwalk Empire, but it’s no Deadwood… and Deadwood’s ratings were pretty good!

Alright, I’ll give up now.

salparadise • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

“Not sure exactly which of Faulkner’s rambling, stream-of-consciousness, sons of the soil-loving stories Milch thinks would make for good television.”

Uh….”Light in August,” “Pylon,” “Sanctuary,” any number of short stories – not everything Faulkner wrote was “The Sound and the Fury” . “Light in August” is Oscar bait – it pains me to no end that nobody’s put together a modern take on that novel.

I, for one, can’t wait to see what comes out of this.

mellon • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I disagree. There’s a reason Faulkner so often adapted other people’s books for television and never his own. Many wonderful books and stories would make bad television.

Steve • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Cool, but Honestly, I would have preferred the Deadwood wrap-up
mini-series we were PROMISED by Milch and HBO. I just don’t care about him anymore after the way he left all his fans hanging, so he could do John from Cincinnati….It just shows that you should not get invested in something he does, he will pull the plug on his own projects when something shinier catches his eye.

As one who was on the periphery of events, I feel it incumbent to step to David Milch’s defense again on this issue (though I’m sure he feels no need for such defense). It was never his intention to swap Deadwood for John From Cincinnati (a project that had been in development before Deadwood). It was his intention, as it is with many successful TV producers (David Kelley, Steven Bochco, Steven Cannell, Dick Wolf, etc.) to have more than one show on at a time. He was quite livid that HBO canceled Deadwood. There’s blame to toss around about that cancellation, but don’t toss it at Milch. He was sucker-punched, and then left to “share” the blame by the network’s public statements. If it had been up to him, there would have been a season 4, and, failing that, the movie wrap-ups. Don’t fall for the canard that he abandoned the show. Quite the opposite is true.

Jim Beaver

Pdiddy • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

You’re just another Milch apologist. Milch walked away from Deadwood over money. Don’t blame HBO as they’re obviously willing to spend gobs of money on production. As to this Faulkner thing,,it’s gotta be one of the worst ideas I’ve seen HBO come up with since John in Cin.

AmLitTeach • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I love the idea, and as a teacher, I look forward to teens and young adults having the opportunity to see classic American literature adapted for their screens. Remember the big screen success of both Hemingway and Faulkner as movie scriptwriters(many with Bogie and Bacall)? The Big Sleep, Key Largo, etc. Faulkner’s fictional Yokanatawpha County is a gold mine for drama! I also hope filming is done in the Delta — just like Matt McConaghey’s “Mudd” (release 2012) in my hometown of Stuttgart, Ark.

American • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Ernest Hemingway never wrote screenplays

EOTW • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

So they cancel his DEADWOOD and let him make these shows that are lesser. makes sense.

hmm • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Light in August would make a great HBO movie or mini-series — it’s a much more straight ahead narrative than Faulkner novels more centered around narrative structures like Sound or As I Lay Dying, yet thematically complex. Mosquitos, a minor novel, would actually make for a fun film, too.

Melody Be • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Wouldn’t it! Light in August is my absolute favorite, it would make an amazing movie!

MoreTears • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

This is uncanny, because (and I swear this is true) just recently I was wondering why Faulkner’s works haven’t received attention from an outfit like HBO. And literally two days ago I was looking over some of the work of another “Southern Gothic” writer, Flannery O’Connor, and thinking how I would love to see an HBO adaptation of just about ANYTHING she wrote. But these thoughts — about Faulkner, about O’Connor — were part of something larger that I have been contemplating, off and on, for some time: If the BBC in the UK can spend as much time and money as they have over DECADES adapting great English literary works for the small screen, with most of them ending up being positively fawned over by Americans who watch them on PBS (not to mention American critics who review the shows), why can’t HBO make a determined effort to bring a good number of great works of American literature to life on the small screen? Where, for instance, is the HBO mini-series of Huckleberry Finn? Don’t try to tell me that wouldn’t sell on DVD, in America and abroad. And while most American writers of merit wouldn’t have the popular appeal of Twain, that really shouldn’t be something that stops HBO from adapting their works.

GN • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Here, here, More Tears – except regarding Huckleberry Finn. The only American classic they do seem to do, over and over…

MoreTears • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Oh, there have been plenty of FILM adaptations of Huckleberry Finn, but most of them have been cheesy, treating the original novel like material for a shallow adventure for kids. Honestly, are any of the many films remembered as remarkable, remembered as “art?” When I say I want an “HBO mini-series,” I mean I want a lavish, artistically-serious production that will be showered with awards (writing awards, acting awards) — something that is commensurate in prestige with what is widely considered the greatest novel in the canon of American literature.

JohnDoe • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

How about giving us a final season of Deadwood, please?…

Gail Hightower • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

His 22-year-old daughter is going to be the coordinating producer? Okay.

Hard work and perseverance will get you anywhere in this town, people! Keep plugging away.

SimAlex2000 • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

Yes, clearly, it’s her fault that her dad is a TV legend and is in a position to help her out. Shame on her for taking advantage of an opportunity.

To be sure, I’m jealous as hell that she’s getting that opportunity, but that’s just the way the dice fall.

Anyway, back to making my own luck instead of raging about the fortunes of others…

DL • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

If Ed O’Neill didn’t have his plate full with “Modern Family” I would say bring back “John From Cincinatti”!

Ellian • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

You could say it. But you’d be insane.

Anonymous Effen Coward • on Nov 30, 2011 9:46 am

I would love to see Faulkner and Milch in a room trying to finish a script. THAT would be a show!

It does make sense that Milch would collaborate with a dead guy. Less chance for an argument. But leave it to Milch to find a way to get into a beef with Faulkner. Or did he just choose Faulkner because the consonation of the name appeals to his gerundistic sensibilities?

I read that towards the end of his brilliant career, Rod Serling stopped actually writing and took to dictating ideas into a tape recorder for an assistant to actually “write”. Perhaps I am mistaken with my above comments and this is just Milch the genius outdoing Serling the genius in laziness. After all, how much writing is actually involved adapting Faulkner? The cinematographer is going to have the hardest job of all…well, we’ll see in 4-20 years when Milch finally gets around to doing something with this…